Impact of front line demonstration on production technology of onion in Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh

The front line demonstration on production technology of onion was conducted for four years (2009-2010 to 2012-2013) on farmer's field of 3 adopted villages of Raisen district in Kharif season. The materials used for the study comprised of N-53, Agrifound dark red as well as local variety as check. The improved package of practices viz improved variety N-53 and ADR, seed treatment, planting, recommended dose of fertilizers, plant protection management were demonstrated on the farmers field. The results of these demonstration revealed that the variety ADR and N-53 yielded 63.55 percent and 40.58 percent higher yield than local variety sown under farmer practices. Agrifound dark red variety recorded higher yield (23.45 t/ha) as compare to N-53 (14.95 t/ha). The technology gap was highest in ADR (6.55 t/ha) compared to N-53 (5.05 t/ha) and the higher extension gap of (9.10 t/ha) was recorded in the variety ADR compared to N-53 (4.25 t/ha). The economic analysis of the data over the year revealed that Agrifound dark red variety recorded higher gross return (Rs. 46900/ha), net return (Rs. 29325/ha) and B: C Ratio (1:3.02) compared to N-53 and local variety. The technology index value was minimum in ADR (21.83%) compared to N-53 (25.25%), suggesting the superiority and feasibility of ADR variety over others.